Control buildings fully with a BMS

As more developers begin to realise that operational expenses account for 50% of a building’s life cycle costs over 50 years, conserving energy becomes more of an issue.
One tool that can help achieve this end is the BMS — but only if used properly.

|~||~||~|With several of the region’s leading developers forced to raise management fees this year, energy consumption and building efficiency has become a growing concern. One way in which energy consumption can be closely monitored and controlled is by using a building management system (BMS). A BMS consists of both hardware and software. The hardware is made up of control and processing units, and a number of other peripheral devices that are connected to the control units to regulate the operation of an appliance. The software is simply the program and the pre-set instructions that allow the control unit to manage the operations of the peripheral devices and of the appliances. By using a modern BMS, a building operator can maximise the efficiency of a building by saving on energy consumption and energy bills. The BMS does this by monitoring the building’s energy consumption and altering the amount of power used depending on the specific requirements of the building at that time. “A BMS is an extremely powerful tool to curb energy consumption,” says Siraj Bushnaq, business development manager, Energy Management Services — Emirates LLC. A BMS is typically used to control an entire building, but they can also be used to control multiple properties through a telephone modem that downloads all the necessary information at regular intervals. If there is a problem at any of the buildings, then an alarm is raised to inform the engineer, just as a single building BMS would. By monitoring all the building services closely, the building engineer no longer has to worry about monitoring the building’s performance and can focus on maintenance jobs. “Our experience has shown that engineers normally have a thousand things to do, and tend not to monitor how a building is performing,” says Bushnaq. “With a well-managed BMS system, the engineer can be informed of problems before they happen, which is ultimately better for him and the building,” he adds. Although a BMS can offer a number of benefits, its effectiveness depends on how well it is operated. “Sadly, there are a lot of management systems in buildings across the emirates, but only 5% of these BMS are used properly,” explains Bushnaq. “If they were used properly, they would immediately generate 5 to 10% savings on the energy bills,” he adds.||**||